The Writing Mosquito
by KittyPurryHGHP
Summary: Have you ever wondered what turned Rita Skeeter into the flamboyant, not-so-truthful reporter of the Daily Prophet we all know and hate? Could it have been a writing competition between her and Molly Pruitt?What about that scandal Narcissa Black got herself into? Or the family that grew because of it? Perhaps it only took one false article that accused her of the wrong things...


_Wizards vs. Muggles_

_A Persuasive Essay by Rita Skeeter_

Mm…No.

_Who's Got it Good? Magic or Machinery?_

_A Persuasive Essay by Rita Skeeter_

Improper use of grammar; get it together, Rita.

"What do you think, Daniel?" said Rita Skeeter, looking up from her parchment at her best friend, Daniel Barnes. "What should my title be?"

"It depends," he replied, "On your opinion. Who do you think leads the better life?"

Rita was an attractive young girl in her fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She sported emerald green pajama pants and a _Holyhead Harpies _T-Shirt. Her hair was always tame; a rich blonde color which curled ever so slightly at the bottom and was often kept out of her eyes from behind a headband. Although Rita wore emerald rimmed glasses for her classes, she often looked over them instead of through them. Rita looked over them to Daniel now as she told him her thoughts on the matter.

"It's so biased, Dan!" she cried. "The expected reply from a pureblood is 'wizards' are the ones who live the best lives, since they can't imagine a life without magic. They don't care to walk a mile in a muggle's shoes. And muggle-borns...all they knew was life without magic and suddenly they're presented with the extraordinary, the impossible. Of COURSE they'd say wizards have the 'cool' lives."

"Right. Why are you working on this now, though? The essay isn't due for two weeks!"

"Why aren't you? I wonder how you're a Ravenclaw sometimes; you're so lazy!"

"What's your point?" Daniel asked, as he often got peeved when Rita nagged.

"I discussed it with Professor Magiam, and she said, I quote indirectly, 'if I can't pick a side, I merely discuss my opinion in my essay."

"So, you're not trying to convince anyone to agree with you? You're just informing them of said point?" he asked for clarification.

"That's correct."

"Then take 'persuasive' out of the title if you're not persuading anyone of anything. Now quit worrying about that essay and go to bed. It's half-past eleven. You need your rest if you're going to brainstorm with the others tomorrow."

Rita untucked her legs from under her in that blue and silver Ravenclaw common room. She accepted Daniel's hand which he offered in order to help her up and yawned.

"Why do you always have to be right?"

"I am a Ravenclaw, aren't I?" he said with a crooked smile.

* * *

><p>Back in her room, Rita quietly put her quill and parchment in her trunk. She crawled into her blue four-poster bed and looked up at the ceiling where she had strategically placed her favorite poster. Up there, it was the last thing she'd see at night and the first thing she'd see in the morning. It was a homemade poster which was added to every year. Towards the top, it had pictures of Rita as an infant with her parents supporting her (physically, since infants can't hold themselves up for a while). But further down, the poster showed pictures of the reunion she had every year with her best friend, Callie.<p>

After Rita's first year at Hogwarts, Callie and Rita had celebrated her return with girly squeals, hugs, and an age-old secret handshake. Other pictures were of birthday parties (luckily, Rita's birthday was early August, so she was always home to celebrate) which Callie's sister, Sophie, often joined them for. Rita was always trying to include Sophie, but Sophie and Callie had one of the worst cases of sibling rivalry.

Rita always looked at that poster before going to sleep, but lately it had been making her homesick. She longed for a balance between her two lives. She wanted to stay home and hang out with Callie after school every day like they did back in primary school, but how could she ever abandon a life of magic?

It wasn't until after the third year of the lie that stated Rita was going to the prestigious boarding school "Carla Crumpet's Academy for Young Ladies" that Rita confessed that she was a witch to Callie. Callie wished Rita had told her about Hogwarts sooner, but she understood the reasons she hadn't.

In the last picture on her collage, there was a picture of Callie, Sophie, Daniel, and Andromeda surrounding her on her fifteenth birthday just a few months before. Rita's cheeks were embarrassingly puffed out to blow out the candles on her green birthday cake.

Rita chuckled and tried to hold her tears back as she drifted off into intense dreams of colorful kingdoms and dangerous foes.

***A/N- Thank you for reading this! This is a first draft that I wrote late at night, so it probably isn't much good yet. I'll be making revisions before I send this Fanfic elsewhere, and all constructive criticism is welcome. I'm only fourteen, so any special writing techniques you think I may benefit from are welcome also. **

**Lo and behold the crazy fanfiction children write at night. Please don't judge too too harshly. **

**Thanks again! **

**~Kitty***


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